Alex Edler struggled mightily last season. That’s stating the obvious. He never seemed to find his way under head coach John Tortorella, who was fired after one season in Vancouver.

A suspension early in the season and an injury contributed to the difficulties of the 28-year-old Swedish defenseman in 2013-14. He finished the season with a league-worst minus-39 rating, although the validity of that statistic has come under fire in recent years with the rise on analytics. His contributions offensively were also well below what he’s done in the past, with 22 points in 63 games. That was his same point total from the 45 games he played during the 2013 lockout-shortened season.

But it seems that with the newly forming Trevor Linden era, the plan is keep Edler and continue to try and develop his game back rather than deal him.

“He’d be the first to admit he didn’t have a good year, and part of our job is to recapture the Alex Edler that we all know he can be. He has the skill-set that every team wants and we just have to get him back where he should be,” said Linden, as per The Province newspaper in Vancouver.

“There isn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t have its hand up for the opportunity to have an Alex Edler. It’s not in our consideration. We want to work with Alex; we have to get his game back, and I know he’s committed to doing that.”

Yeah, it tells you that when he was on the ice there was a decided problem with the 5v5 game, either due to him, his linemates, or the system. It doesn’t say which of those factors (him, teammates, system) was the problem though.

I’m tired of Edler as well as a nucks fan, but his stock is about as low as it can be at -39 under Torts. Plus Edler already stated he signed a NTC so he wouldn’t have to leave. He’s not wanting to leave. You can’t sell low. I don’t see him being any worse than -39, and if you’re in the same situation in a year he may be more inclined to waive his NTC for some teams, and you can get more. Other teams have all the leverage in trade talks with that -39 right now…

imleftcoast - Jun 4, 2014 at 5:07 PM

A lot of Canucks had career worst seasons. Tortorella changed the system from d-men moving it as fast as possible to circling endlessly trying to feed stretch passes to forwards who had collapsed to the front of the net. It was a mess this year. It wouldn’t make sense to dump Edler at a bargain without giving him a chance to build his career back with a capable coach.